Hello Timothy,

The new Zeiss confocals have an other building plan than the 410. The
LSM510 and Pascal are both connected trough a SCSI device with a special
box which controls the microscope. This makes the computer rather
independent from the microscope. All the hardware in the special box
should be serviced by Zeiss, which also still supports the LSM410
hardware. All microscope dealers will tell you that they support your
system for a certain period, but certainly not until the end of times.
The question in this case is, what is a reasonable period. The microscope
will probably work more than 10 years, but the software is rather old
fashioned long before that time.

Greetings, Gert van Cappellen

Timothy Gomez wrote:

> Dear cofocal group,
>
> I am in the market for a confocal and have been leaning toward the
> Zeiss LSM 5 Pascal.  Obviously I have followed the discussion
> concerning the limitations of the LSM 410 software closely.  I am
> wondering now if this problem also holds true for the newer models of
> Zeiss confocals?  Also, is it then true that other confocal systems
> (Bio-Rad and Olympus in particular), are more versatile and are not
> limited to one frame grabber?
>
> Thanks for any help with my important and pending decision,
>
> Tim
>
> Timothy Gomez, PhD
> Dept of Biology - 0357
> UCSD
> 3220 Pacific Hall
> 9500 Gilman Dr.
> La Jolla, Ca 92037-0357
> [log in to unmask]
> (858) 534-2456 (Ph)
> (858) 534-7309 (Fax)
> Home Page:  http://www-biology.ucsd.edu/~tgomez/